Cut operating costs with UCC and workplace from the private cloud

Mobile working, better collaboration, simple access to applications – these are the requirements for a future-oriented workplace IT. In the "Tech Deficit" study, however, only a quarter of European companies claimed that their current IT infrastructure would be able to cope with future business requirements (Colt, 2014). Only 38.5 percent of German CIOs have completed collaboration projects according to the "IT Trends 2015" study (Capgemini, 2015). So it is no surprise that workplace modernization is on the agenda for 85 percent of German companies, according to the analyst firm PAC.

At the same time, IT departments also need to have an eye on the total cost of ownership (TCO). According to PAC, more than 60 percent of German ICT managers expect stagnating or even declining budgets for ICT workplaces. Can the demands for modernized workplaces, new collaboration solutions and tight budgets be reconciled?

"To fully exploit the potential for cost savings, companies must have the courage to carry out a 'core clean-up' of their infrastructure."

IDG Business Media GmbH, 2014

Lower operating costs through standardization

"An appropriate workplace environment design does not mean that companies should ignore all standards – and the associated potential for quality assurance and cost-cutting," say the experts at PAC. One example of this is the flexible sourcing of collaboration applications or even the complete workplace IT from the cloud. While employees can access the applications they need quickly and easily, regardless of location, the IT department benefits from lower costs. How is this possible? The cloud providers have developed highly standardized services in their data centers, achieving economies of scale that they can pass on to their customers. Moreover, centralizing service delivery in the data center reduces the effort needed for maintenance, updates and support.

Maximize savings, improve efficiency

The potential savings can be captured most effectively when the complete workplace IT runs in the cloud. Furthermore, the migration process involves comprehensive IT consolidation and standardization. Entire workplaces can even be set up, managed and adjusted with a few clicks of the mouse. Inexpensive thin clients are enough to access the workplace, since all the computing takes place in the data center. In the end, overall costs for the desktop infrastructure can be reduced by 30 to 40 percent.

And what happens with the savings? Companies can invest it in other, pioneering IT projects.